A typical lighting arrangement for a motor vehicle ignition lock includes a light ring which comprises a light-guiding material. The light ring surrounds the ignition lock and has light-guide extensions leading to a light source to feed light to the light ring.
A lighting arrangement of that kind can be found in EP 0 475 146 A1. It comprises a sleeve-shaped light ring which extends around the ignition lock of a motor vehicle to produce a homogeneous lighting effect, and a cover which is releasably secured to the light ring and which extends around it in positively locking relationship. Integrated into the cover is a lamp housing for accommodating a lamp serving as the light source. The light of the lamp is deflected through 90° by way of light-deflecting prisms and introduced into the light ring by way of light-introducing limbs.
A similar lighting arrangement for an ignition lock is to be found in DE 37 04 469 A1. In the lighting arrangement therein, the lamp housing is formed integrally on the light ring body, while once again a prism-like arrangement is provided for introduction of the light from the lamp into the light ring.
DE 25 35 080 B1, EP 0 448 501 A1 and DE 197 56 701 A1 also disclose lighting arrangements for the cigarette lighter of a motor vehicle. Those arrangements generally also have a light ring and a lamp housing, wherein the light from the lamp is passed to the light ring by prisms or similar devices.
A disadvantage with the above-discussed arrangements is that they require a considerable amount of space in the region of the ignition lock, by virtue of the presence of the lamp which is to be disposed in the proximity of the light ring. Frequently therefore there is no longer sufficient space for arrangements of that kind in modern motor vehicles with an immobilizer fitted to the ignition lock. Those electronic immobilizers include a device for recognizing a code individually associated with an ignition key, and an electronic control system which permits the motor vehicle to be started only when the appropriate code of the ignition key has been recognized. In general immobilizers have a coil and a transponder in order to be able to interrogate the code stored in the ignition key.